


masks

by izuwu_midowoiya



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Action, F/M, M/M, Pining, Vigilante, crap and hell, minor cursing?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-07
Updated: 2019-07-25
Packaged: 2019-10-23 21:07:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17691017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/izuwu_midowoiya/pseuds/izuwu_midowoiya
Summary: In which Keith is a vigilante who holds unrequited feelings for Lance Mcclain and Lance Mcclain is a vigilante who holds unrequited feelings for Keith's alibi.Focus shifts between Keith, Lance, and Pidge every 3 chapters."Great character development. You use story elements effectively, and the plot is convincing.  This story is touching, and certainly worth further development should you choose to continue editing." -My English Teacher. Final Grade: 48/50 = A; This fan fiction was submitted as a trimester final project where we had to write a suspense narrative.





	1. Chapter 1

It was a warm Thursday night in Plaht City. The summer wind was weak and felt as warm as the air. Keith was fiddling with his mask, trying to find a balance between comfortable position and hiding his identity. No one needed to recognize his face and find out that he was a vigilante, even though he was only covering his mouth. Suddenly, a scream rang through his ears, causing a flinch in the cool summer night. Hopping onto his goldwing motorcycle, he hurriedly made his way to the origin of the sound. _It sounded like it came from the park,_ he established in his mind. His thought was right. Without thinking, Keith clumsily and quickly stumbled off his bike and reached for his mechanical staff in his holster. Running straight towards the danger, Keith pressed his thumb against the divot in his staff to extend the length from it’s neutral mode when it’s stored. _Aim..._ While keeping his momentum, he aimed towards what appeared to the threat. With all his force in his right arm, he propelled the staff to hit the target’s face. The only thing wrong, was that Keith’s aim was absolute trash. Sure, he could hit people when their close, but from just instead of hitting the face of the threat, the staff hit the weapon in their hand, which is pretty much still a win in Keith’s book. The weapon was knocked out of their hand onto the cold, slick, pavement of the park’s walkway.

Keith slid on his knees, using his left arm to stretch behind him to slow him down, to stop right in front of the victim curled up on the ground. The staff fell into Keith’s right hand, not in the most comfortable position to fight someone in, but still doable. A sound of someone scraping the pavement snuck into his ears from behind him. Keith looked back at the victim, to see his closest friend and crush, Lance, behind him. Shocked, his mind shut down for a moment. _ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! Literally one of the people you’ve been trying to protect as your whole time as a vigilante is NOT protected! FOCUS._ Snapping back into reality, he heard the threat’s voice hiss at him.

“The Marmorian.” The guy pronounced his alias right for the first time after a series of poor attempts by others Keith fought. It was a weird name, he had to admit, but he thought it sounded cool. Almost like an alien species.

Trying to keep cool in front of Lance, Keith stood up. He shifted the staff in his hand into a better position than before. Keith studied the figure's clothing. It was the uniform color pallet for one of the biggest gangs in the city, The Fire of Purification. Black, with hints of red and subtle purple.

“Should have know a Flame would be here,” he scoffed, voice higher than usual. He’s dealt with members of the gang before. Even with them hurting his family on a personal level, he’s left that behind him. Adam would have wanted vengeance for his death. Takashi would have wanted to fight until the end of time to keep Adam. The Fire of Purification just wanted to show their power, that’s why Adam’s gone now.

“Y’know, it’s kind of sad the gang had to snoop so low to hurt random people on the street just because of power lust,” Keith’s voice went up an octave in front of Lance, but he tried to make himself feel threatening. The threat’s body positioned softened, leaving him less as a threat.

Keith casually walked over to the dropped weapon, keeping the end of his staff pointed to the threat’s direction. He picked up the weapon, a BB gun after close examination.

“Nice BB gun,” he said. He looked over to the threat who seemed to be cowering a little. Keith sighed.

“Look,” he started, lowering his staff, but keeping the hand on the trigger of the gun, “I’ll let you go, on one condition...”

Keith stole a glance at the so called ‘threat’ now. The guy was nodding vigorously.

“No BB gun,” Keith waved the gun in order for the boy to see. The boy was hesitant, and to be honest, Keith was feeling a little bit sorry. The boy probably invested about thirty dollars on the gun. The boy then nodded and started to walk away into the darkness of the night.

Keith looked back to Lance, on the ground, who looked confused on what just happened. Keith walked over to Lance, trying to keep cool. The boy on the ground cowered a little, somewhat scared of the unknown figure. Keith laid out his hand and retracted the length of his staff, trying to assure the boy that he meant no harm. Lance reached out, hesitant at first, but took the hand so he could get up off the ground. Though Keith couldn’t feel the skin through his gloves, his heart skipped a beat when Lance trusted him. Letting out a relieved sigh, he made eye contact with Keith. Lance’s eyes were the color of the deep ocean, a royal blue.

“Uh, thank you. For, um, helping me,” Lance stuttered out, causing Keith to realize he was staring to long into the eyes.

“You’re welcome...” Keith mumbled awkwardly, voice still awkwardly girly. It was just them two in the middle of the summer night.

“You, uh, know BB guns won't kill you.”

“It’s the middle of the night, it’s best to assume that it’s real,” Lance replied, following with a chuckle. _That laugh is precious._ Keith let out a laugh in reply and nodded.

“Stay safe, it looks like The Fire of Purification has been trying to scare people. They look like less a threat now, but be careful.” Keith left Lance with a wave towards him as he made his way to grab his goldwing so he could come to the safe haven of his home.


	2. Chapter 2

“I’m home Takashi!” Keith called upstairs after coming in from the garage. He yanked off his mask.

“You can call me Shiro you know that right?”

Shiro said, startling Keith after making his presence noted that he was in the kitchen. Keith huffed. He might have called Takashi ‘Shiro’ for a few months now, but he felt Takashi was better than ‘Shiro’ or ‘Dad’. It felt more comfortable for Keith, even though Keith was adopted three years ago and he was used to the family by now.

“How was the night watch,” Shiro asked.

“Was OK. I got this BB gun.” Keith held it up so that Shiro could see it. The boy at the counter studied object before labeling it.

“A Smith & Wesson Air Gun? Nice.”

Keith took off his first layer of his apparel and his waistband holding his staff in its portable mode and untied his hair from his low and messy ponytail. All he had on was his grey shirt and jeans with purple accents he wears under his pitch black chestplate, knee pads, and boots. Shiro knew Keith was vigilante, and he was the only one who needed to know. He plopped onto the small couch in the living room.

“Shiro?”

“Yea?”

“Do you miss Adam?”

Shiro froze for a second. He told himself he was over Adam’s death already, but how can you get over someone who you loved for years? Shiro blinked and looked at his coffee cup longingly. 

“You know I do, Keith. I loved him, and I just-- looking back on it, I feel so selfish. I miss him so much,” he muttered out. It’s been 2 years since Adam’s death, but the grief is too hard to overcome. It was especially hard for Shiro, since the last time he ever talked to Adam, was when they argued. Keith’s mind recalled the scene, it was etched into his mind from when he was 15.

* * *

 

It was cold outside on the night it had happened. Keith was making his way down stairs when he overheard an argument taking place.

_ Adam, I’m being deployed again, I have to go,  _ Shiro exclaimed. Adam slammed his coffee cup on the kitchen island. 

_ Can’t you opt out? We’re not moving places again, and even if you do go, Keith might have one less person in his life. You wanted to help him by adopting him, and now you’re just leaving him, _ Adam spat _. _ He turned around to face Shiro, causing his caramel hair to fall in front of his black framed glasses.

_ Keith has you! _

_ He needs another parental figure in his life! His dad died and his mom left him. He needs both of us. _

Shiro huffed, not yet accepting defeat. Keith leaned in more on the conversation. Adam stood up straight.

_ Takashi, _ Adam sternly stated,  _ how important am I to you? How important is Keith to you? _

Shiro looked down, cupping his left hand into his right, which was prosthetic after Shiro’s last deployment. He looked at Adam in the corner of his eye. Adam sighed.

_ I’ve been with you through tough and thin. I’ve been with you when you lost your right arm. I don’t want to lose any part of you. So if you decide to go, don’t expect us to be waiting for you. _ Adam took of his engagement ring and placed it into Shiro’s hand. Stunned, Shiro looked up at Adam longingly. Adam opened the garage door. 

The sound of Adam’s goldwing revving was muffled through the walls. Both Shiro and Keith heard Adam drive away, and stayed still in thought. Shiro got up and started walking towards the staircase. Keith was confronted by an angry Shiro. He gulped scurrying up the stairs out of Shiro’s way and into his room.

A few hours later Shiro was crying in front of the TV while the news was playing and Keith was locked in his room with his emotions being left overwhelmed. Adam was murdered by a gang called The Fire of Purification. That gang had its first major crime committed, and it was on Keith’s family. Keith lost someone close to for the third time, how could he get over it? Shiro feebly knocked on Keith’s door after a few minutes. Keith didn’t answer. Shiro knocked again, and again, and again. Keith finally opened his door and looked up at Shiro solemnly. Keith felt weak, all his life he felt like he needed to be strong, but just then, he felt like giving up. There was just a period of the two boys standing on both sides of the doorway, grief and defeat in their eyes, knowing that their lives would never be the same again. There would always be an emptiness in their home. Keith sprang forward and clinged onto Shiro tightly. Both of them started tearing up. Keith was outraged at the gang. He didn’t want anyone to feel the way he felt that night; helpless and grief-stricken. That was day, Keith decided to become a vigilante.


	3. Chapter 3

“Thanks for the ride, mullet,” Lance joked elbowing the shorter boy almost hard enough to knock him off his motorcycle. Keith scoffed and regained his balance.

“I swear, Lance, my mullet looks amazing.”

“Stop being emo.” 

“I thought we agreed to never talk about the phase?”   


“Oh yea, your freshman year ‘I’m so edgy, I have no friends’ phase. That was a beautiful mess.”   


“How did you guys even accept me as a friend in a phase like that?”   


“Allura liked your mullet, that was it. She thought it was cool so she wanted to grow out her hair and be buddies with you.”

Both the boys laughed at the stupidity of the thought while Lance hopped onto the goldwing and put on the helmet Keith gave him. Keith looked back to make sure the other boy was ready. Once he was sure that he was on, he revved the engine and took off. The summer morning was warm, with the sun shining on everything it could touch. They made it to the first stop light when Lance complained.

“Ay, your mullet is getting in my face,” Lance pouted, putting his head on Keith’s shoulder. 

“Stop complaining about my hair, please.”

“At least tie it up! I was taking a midnight walk and someone had, like, the same hair as up you. They wore it better though, actually tying it up to look nice.”

Keith focussed on the traffic light, trying to figure out how to ask Lance about last night after being reminded of the experience. He didn’t know it was Keith who saved him from possible death. Keith’s acting skills had to be on point, or else he’ll give away his alias. When the green hue lit up, Keith started his bike and started going slightly over the speed limit. 

“So, uh, what happened?”

“Oh, I’ll tell you at lunch, it’s fine,” Lance said with a grin on his face.

* * *

 

Keith was anxious through his first four periods, worrying about what Lance would say at lunch. Keith ran through what he thought was the worst scenarios in his head.  _ What if Lance says, “Oh yea, the person who helped me looked stupid.” What about, “Whoever helped me was weird, like, why was he out in the middle of the night dressed like that?”  _ An argument against himself formed in his head throughout the morning, coming with him from subject to subject.  _ Well, why was Lance out in the middle of the night?? He sounded sort of excited to talk about it!  _ Up to lunch, Keith got more and more mad at himself, always finding a way to fight the voices in his head. 

“Oh, hi Keith,” Allura expressed, happily waving over to him at their self-proclaimed ‘Cliché’ table. They all called the table that, because they were a cardboard cutout of characters from a cliché TV show. Keith was the loner, Lance was the goofball, Katie was the smart one, Hunk was the lovable one, and Allura was the mature one. 

Katie was sitting, earbuds plugged into her computer, typing furiously. She occasionally took a bite out of her Cup of Noodles, but otherwise she was glued to the blue screen. Hunk sat next to her, repeatedly pointing at the screen to only get his hand slapped by Katie’s. 

“Hunk, I told you to stop touching my equipment!”

“Oh, come on Katie!”

“You know I hate it when you call me that.”

“Ok… Pidge… you know that sounds like the word pigeon.”

“Well, I like it. Reminds me of an 80’s cartoon my dad used to watch.”

Hunk stopped annoying Pidge to take a bite out of his own lunch, finally noticing Keith’s presence next to Allura, who was going off on how it was being Vice President in Student Council in her British accent. When Lance made his entrance at the table, everyone stopped talking and waited for him to speak.    


“You guys really want to know, don’t you?” Lance asked, with a smirk on his face.

Pidge blinked at him, then had an epiphany. Lance earned a long groan from her who hit her head on the table intentionally. She glared at him, not wanting to put up with any of his antics.

“Lover boy Lance got another crush! What a surprise.”

The whole table was disappointed except Keith and Lance. Allura rolled her eyes at the announcement while Hunk sighed, but Keith was trying to decode who Lance liked.  _ Can’t be me. He always makes sure people know that he likes girls,  _ he thought. His thoughts were proven to be even more correct when Lance winked at Allura, then at Pidge, both victims of Lance’s horrible flirting and pick-up lines. 

The group’s love live was complicated in Keith’s eyes. Pidge and Lance were a couple once. They did cute things like gardening, and baking pies, but after Pidge’s father went missing after the rise of The Fire of Purification, she severed the relationship in fear of losing someone else she loved. Lance was heartbroken, of course, but he cared for Pidge enough that he understood why it happened and respected her decision. They’re like awkward siblings now. Allura on the other hand, never liked Lance. She saw him as more of a friend, and never returned feelings for him. Her love life was the most successful after Pidge and Lance broke up. She has a boyfriend named Lotor and they look happy together. Allura is a successful woman and deserves love. Still, Lance doesn’t keep teasing her with flirting just to annoy her boyfriend. Hunk just never dated and just wasn’t really attracted to anyone. People assumed him and Pidge were together, but it was disproven quickly after an angry freckled faced four foot gremlin named Pidge attacked anyone who said they were together Keith’s been single his whole life. He never found a use for love, until he was adopted by Shiro and Adam. He saw them so happy, and Keith wanted that same bit of happiness too.

“Lance is lovesick, isn’t he?” Allura complained, sipping tea from a light blue canister, complimenting her outfit and contrasting her dark brown skin and dyed white hair.

“Hey now, don't judge me but I don’t even know her name, all I know there’s an ‘M’ in there,” Lance said, putting his hands in the air waiting for backlash.

“Lance is hopeless now,” Pidge stated. She drank the remains of her Cup of Noodles when Lance elbowed her in the rib cage, in which he considered softly, but ended up making her cough on the liquid and tip over onto the bench. For revenge, she hit back with a full body lunge causing Lance to fall down on the bench. Lance hugged her and regained his sitting position.

“Anyways, she just fascinates me, y’know? I was taking midnight stroll and she caught my attention from a mile away. The way she was, she seemed perfect, for me, of course.”

Keith’s mind races with thoughts.  _ Was he just that bored or stressed that he took a stroll in the middle of the night? I get wanted to be relieved of stress that by why in the middle of the night? That’s dumb and cute at the same time. Classic Lance. Slightly dumb at times, lovesick, always having the need to hold something, but always cares about people, and will protect anyone he loves by sacrificing himself.  _ Keith’s phone alarm rang, signaling that it was a few minutes until his next period. He went off on his way to his classroom, just to realize he forgot to eat.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for being late! im always lazy updating this but i have the whole thing done

Did Lance know what he was doing? Yes. Did he know why he was doing it? Sort of. Was it necessary? No. All Lance wanted to do was to find out who that girl was, but he felt like she deserved help after saving him from getting hurt. He was still a little bit weary on the latter though. He might die, but who would notice anyway? He was just ‘the goofball’. There was nothing really special about him. This could be a chance to show the world he could do something useful.

The boy peeked out his bedroom doorway to see if his parents or any of his four siblings were still awake. None of the lights in the hallway were on, so he assumed all of them were asleep. He closed his door and checked himself in the mirror again. If he wanted to help that girl, he would hide his identity like her, for whatever reason she had to hide herself. He grabbed his BB gun collection rom under his bed. He hasn’t touched it since he was 14. Coughing on the dust that collected on it, he opened the plastic case and found his sniper.

It was lengthy, but easy to carry with the built in strap for mobility and was able to break someone’s bone if not wearing correct armor. Lance grabbed his small drawstring bag full of pellets and knotted into the belt hole of his tan jeans. He puffed out his green trench coat and swept his fingers through his hair, making it fall softly on his forehead. He pulled up his royal blue bandana around his mouth and opened his window softly. The summer was turning into fall as the breeze from the outside world blew into Lance’s face. He jumped out the second floor window landing on the ground with only a little pressure to his heels.

Making a sprint towards the more urban side of Plaht City, he saw a figure on top of one of the apartment complexes. Lance found who he was looking for.  _ Where do I-- how do I get up there?  _ While trying to find a way to the top of the building, he crashed into a vending cart that was left out. He shook his head and looked back up to lose the figure. He sighed and took a closer look at what he crashed into. He lifted the tarp and revealing a flower cart full of flowers. Squinting his eyes, he examined the bouquets lined up with the street lamp glow.  _ Gardenias,  _ _ a genus of flowering plants in the coffee family. They symbolize secret love. Lance moved onto the next flower, which had light blue coloring on the petals. Myosotis, typically known as the Forget-Me-Nots, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Boraginaceae. They symbolize true-love memories. The last flowers in the light had magenta petals and a pink interior. Morning Glories are annual climbers with slender stems, heart-shaped leaves, and trumpet-shaped flowers of pink, purple-blue, magenta, or white. They symbolize affection.  _ All the flowers symbolize love in a way. Lance plucked a Morning Glory out the bouquet, held it softly in his gloved fingers, and looked back to where he last saw who he was looking for.


	5. Chapter 5

Later that night, Lance was perched on a rooftop talking to who saved him the previous night. The girl was actually a boy (Lance deciphered that in his mind after hearing the guy speak to him) and he was called ‘The Marmorian’. Lance would think that knowing The Marmorian was a boy would get rid of his crush, but it didn't. He thought he was straight, but his current feelings put multiple questions into his head if he only liked girls. Lance didn’t care about physical appearances that much, it was more personality wise. The Marmorian crossed his arms looking bored at Lance’s explanation on why he was on an apartment complex roof with him.

“What’s your name?” The Marmorian asked, raising an uninterested eyebrow.

“Pike.” It was a nickname that Lance owned given to him by his family who teased him about his interest in dogs. It was just ‘Spike’ minus the ‘S’.

The Maramorian glanced at Lance’s sniper and made eye contact with Lance again.

“Yea. I don’t need help in the work I do.” The black figure turned his back to Lance.

“Wh-what?”

“I said I don’t need help. You obviously have that sniper to help me.”

“I want to repay you!”

“I’ve saved multiple lives, I don’t get paid for risking my life. I don’t need you to repay me.”

The Marmorian started to walk towards the edge of the building when Lance reached out his arm.

“Wait!”

“What?”

“I’ll prove I’m useful.”

“No. I told you before I--”

“--Don’t need help. Yea. I heard you the first time. You don’t understand your disadvantage though. You only have a staff, which is only good for close range combat unless you throw the staff are far away targets. You’ve already got yourself down a weapon. All you have left is your fists, which, won’t do a lot against gunfire.”

The Marmorian rolled his eyes, put his right hand on his hips, and shifted his weight to his right leg.

“Fine. Don’t fall behind.”


	6. Chapter 6

Not falling behind was easier said than done for Lance. His BB gun kept hitting his left knee and almost made him trip while he was jumping a decently sized alleyway. A loud bang rang in the distance. The Marmorian stopped in his tracks which allowed Lance to catch up to him. The bang repeated itself two times more. The Marmorian started running off again, this time to the outer edges of the city. Lance followed behind, trying to keep up.

The sound of a pistol being shot grew louder and louder until they reached Atlas Avenue. There were two people in hoodies in different positions shooting pistols at someone hiding behind a parked car. The person who was hiding behind the car was gripping a small object and holding it tightly to her chest.

Without hesitation, The Marmorian jumped down and started attacking the closest target with a gun. Lance brought up his BB gun and spectated the fight through the scope of his sniper. Since they had the element of surprise, The Marmorian wasn’t hit with any gunfire. He thrusted the end of the staff into his target’s stomach with enough force to propel both the target and his staff to the closest lamp post. The defeated target’s pistol and The Maramorian’s fell out of reach of any of the figures on ground level. A loud bang from the other foe’s pistol rang through the air. The Marmorian screamed in pain and gripped his right arm tightly. Lance reacted quickly and aimed at the other target’s arm that held the gun, which wasn’t covered by anything.  _ Mamá, forgive me _ , he quickly prayed in his head before pressing the trigger on his sniper.

The target let out a yelp from her mouth and dropped her gun in order to tend to her broken arm. She looked around at the scene in front of her. The Marmorian glaring at her, she was hit from on top of a building by a sniper that hurt her arm immensely, and she couldn’t pick up her weapon. She grinned her teeth and spat out in disgust, “We’ll leave.”

She walked towards her partner in crime with Lance keeping his scope on her to make sure she didn’t attempt anything risky. The girl helped her partner off the ground with their matching color scheme of clothings,  black, with hints of red and subtle purple. They  left without picking up their pistols. The Marmorian went and picked up his staff and the two pistols. He looked up and signalled Lance to come down from the building. Lance obeyed.

“Thank you, Pike.”

“So...?

The Marmorian’s eyebrows lifted from it’s heavy weight of the pain in the owner’s arm.

“I could really use your help, Mr. Sharpshooter.”

“Mr. Sharpshooter?”

They both started walking towards the car where the girl took as refuge earlier.

“Yea, you’ve got some good aim, Pike.”

Lance smiled and blushed a little before he looked down and saw Pidge on the ground with eyes wide open, gripping something tightly in her hand to her chest. Lance gulped and went down on his knees too see eye-to-eye with Pidge.

“I’m-- I just-- I--”

“Woah, calm down...” Lance remembered he said that he would keep his identity a secret. He couldn’t let Pidge know that her sort-of brother and friend just beat up two people that were shooting at her. He looked at Pidge’s hand that was gripping something tightly.

“So, um, do you know why they were shooting?”

“Well... my father went missing and the gang was getting more powerful out the time and, like, I just had to think if it was the gang that made my father go missing. That led to tonight. I found a database of all their crimes from 2 years ago. I found an old USB and downloaded all the files in there to see, if maybe, my father was killed.”

Lance lunged forward and hugged Pidge, who was startled, but returned the gesture. She loved her family that much as to almost risk dying just to find them. They got up off the ground and let go. Pidge ran over to her bike that was crashed into a wall and picked it up. She looked back at both the figures who saved her for a moment, then looked back forward and biked away.

Lance turned back to The Marmorian who’s facial expression was soft. His eyes were soft and showed vulnerability in them.  _ Those eyes. Those stupid eyes.  _ Lance looked down at The Marmorian’s arm and became increasingly worried.

“Are you OK?? You need to go get that patched up.”

“Don’t worry, I’m fine.”

“Do you need help getting to a place where you can get that bandaged?”

The Marmorian’s eyes grew, not really expecting help.

“N-no. I’m fine. I have my motorcycle parked close by.”

“You sure?”

“Yea.”

Lance gulped. He grabbed the Morning Glory from his pocket where he stored it from earlier.

“Uh, I have this for you.”

“A flower?”

“Morning Glory.”

“Thanks?”

The Marmorian took his hand off his wound and accepted the gift, putting it behind their ear. Lance felt his face get warm.  _ Excuse me? That’s cute. He can’t do that!  _ Lance, in a fluster, turned and started making his way to his home. He had no clue on what to do, so he figured just to go home.

“Pike?”

Lance turned around.

“Yea?”

“Call me Akira.”

“Psh-- that’s a stupid name. Why?”

“I trust you. It’s not my real name, but it sounds better than calling me by my alias.”

Lance smiled under his bandana around his mouth.

“Gotcha, Akira.”

_ Akira. That’s a cute name. _


End file.
